5 Things You Should ALWAYS Do Before You Sign a Petition

Petitions have as much of a presence on today’s social media timelines and newsfeeds as food photos and relationship memes. But how do you know if you’re signing something that’s actually going to help a cause?

We contacted the team at the world’s leading social action platform Change.org to ask for advice on how you can fact check a petition to make sure it is legitimate and has the potential to actually make a difference. Senior engagement manager Jason Barnaby, director of communications Joshunda Sanders, and senior communications manager A.J. Walton told Teen Vogue some easy tips that should be part of any online activist’s petition-signing procedure. (And if you want to organize yourself, you can check out Change.org's organizing toolkit here.)

1. Find out who’s behind it.

If it’s not a person or organization you already know and trust, the Change.org team suggests good old Google and social media searches to do some quick independent vetting of your own. Try Googling the petitioner’s name in quotation marks (i.e., “Jane Doe”) with something that might help narrow down the search, like the name of their organization or their hometown.

2. Be mindful of how it’s presented.

Don’t take any facts and figures cited at their word, especially if they feel like exaggerations or falsifications that you can easily check online. Foundations, national newspapers, and national/regional journalists can be good factual, non-partisan sources to help you research anything that sounds confusing (or fishy).

3. Identify the petition’s recipient.

In order for a petition to win and have the desired impact, the proper decision-maker must be reached. Has this petition targeted the correct place? Petitioning the president of the United States to rename a school, for example, is not as effective as petitioning the school’s local board or officials.

4. Read the fine print.

Reading fine print may not be a habit, but it’s particularly important to do when you’re lending your name to a petition. You need to clearly understand the petition’s specific ask and nothing should be confusing. If you don’t read everything, you run the risk of signing a petition that does not represent your viewpoint on the issue.

5. Perform a gut check.

The last check you should do is of critical importance: Is your Spidey sense tingling in a good or bad way? Pay attention to your instincts. If something feels off, it’s probably off — don’t sign it.